


Arrogance

by shadowlancer_95



Series: CACW AUs [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Anti-Team Cap, Civil War Team Iron Man, Dark Tony, Gen, Not Steve Friendly, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Tony Stark Needs a Hug, sort of dark tony
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-03 07:16:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8702764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shadowlancer_95/pseuds/shadowlancer_95
Summary: They're not heroes, they never were, and Tony finally sees that.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So I've always wondered what would happen if Tony tried to take away Team Cap's gear by legal means and I realized that he might actually be able to get most of their gear. This was supposed to just explore that little headcanon, but it ran away from me. Either way, please do enjoy!
> 
> Disclaimer: I don't own Marvel
> 
> p.s. can you see that I'm still feeling salty about CACW?  
> p.p.s this was written in a rush so please forgive the lack of quality and the huge amount of discrepancies

After leaving Siberia, Steve had found out that the Avengers had been placed in the Raft, and in good conscience, he went to T’Challa for help. The king had refused, citing his concern for Wakanda and while Steve understood – to some degree, that T’Challa had a country’s reputation to worry about – he had still felt an undercurrent of resentment. That was up until he found the quinjet that they had appropriated waiting in an unassuming corner of the palace.

By the time he had found the jet, it had been one week since his arrival in Wakanda, and six days since Bucky decided to be frozen again. Steve allowed himself a day to prepare – even if he had nothing to prepare – before he hopped into the Quinjet and took off. He found himself opening his mouth to ask FRIDAY to head to the Raft’s location before snapping it shut, remembering that he was all alone now.

The American hero sighed, he didn’t understand why Tony would throw their friends into a supermax prison when all they’d been trying to do was _help_. There wasn’t anything to be done now anyway, he’d think of what to tell Tony when the man stopped being angry at him.

Steve may not have been as technologically savvy as Tony had been, but he’d still picked up a few things here and there from his time in SHIELD. (Though he tried not to think of the time he worked – however unknowingly – for HYDRA)

One of those things – incidentally – was how to operate a Quinjet enough to fly it.

So he grabbed the pieces of paper that he had brought with him, and started up the jet, flying the plane out of Wakanda.

Steve had to do a double take when he reached the cells holding his teammates. He did a slow turn, horror growing in his chest as he took in the way his friends were imprisoned.

“Oh my god,” he whispered, reaching Wanda’s cell. The girl didn’t even respond, staring blankly at the wall while her collar blinked steadily.

Swallowing the anger and disgust – how could Tony do such a thing? – he quickly went back out into the connecting room, stepping over the bodies of the guards he had taken out. Bending over one of them, he took the man’s rifle and went back to the cells. One by one, he freed them, wincing internally as the glass shattered.

He waved for the Avengers to follow him, “Hurry! We don’t have much time!”

They followed behind him obediently, Clint tugging a catatonic Wanda along beside him. Steve – and Sam – took out any guards that tried to stop them, and before long, they were in the Quinjet, Clint having pushed Wanda to Scott and seated himself in the pilot seat, taking off before Steve could even blink an eye.

The back of the Quinjet closed, shutting out the roar of the ocean. Steve heaved a sigh of relief, turning to kneel in front of Wanda.

“S’good to see you Cap,” Clint called from the front, his tone edgy, “Thought you weren’t coming for us.”

Steve frowned, confused, “Why wouldn’t I?”

Sam shot a scowl at the archer but didn’t answer Steve’s question, instead asking his own, “What happened? Where’s Stark?”

Steve blinked, “Why would you –”, he cut himself off, realization dawning on him, “You’re the one who told Tony where we were.”

Sam shrugged, “He said he wanted to help you, and I believed him, so, Cap, what happened?”

Steve looked away uncomfortably, unsure of how he should respond.

Clint snorted, “Clearly Stark lied to you. Told you you shouldn’t have believed that backstabbing motherfucker.”

Sam glared at him, “You’re one to talk, how could you make such a joke about Rhodes so soon after what happened?” the man turned back to Steve, “Never mind that, what happened Steve?”

Steve shrugged, and Clint sniped, “Obviously Stark didn’t go to help them, otherwise he’d be here.”

“Is that true?” Sam demanded.

Steve pressed his lips together, he didn’t want to tell them what happened, but keeping quiet wasn’t right either so… “There were some – complications.”

Sam closed his eyes and sighed, dropping into his seat.

“Told you – never trust a Stark.” Scott added his two-cents quietly.

Then something about what Sam said made Steve pause in his check on Wanda, “Wait, what happened to Rhodes?”

Sam sighed again, “He and Stark was chasing after you and Barnes, I caught up to them. I think there was some order for Vision to destroy my engines but I dodged it. The blast caught Rhodes right in the reactor and he fell several hundred feet.” He flicked dark, melancholic eyes to Steve, “He’s paralysed.”

Steve felt his breath punch out of his chest – was that why Tony had been so angry? Because he was indirectly responsible for Tony’s best friend’s injury?

The hero didn’t deign to respond to Sam’s statement, and instead turned his focus to Wanda, trying to coax the girl out of her catatonic state.

It didn’t take long for the group of heroes to decide to continue their ‘good work’. Steve told Clint to take them back to Wakanda, where he met with T’Challa to negotiate their stay, repeating the king’s requests back to the team. They all agreed to stay within the walls of the country and within the section of the palace that the king had given to them.

They stayed there for a month.

Wanda took a week to resurface from her state, and when she did, the others had to grab her to calm her down enough that she didn’t go off right there and then to relieve Tony’s head from his body. As it was, she was spitting mad and vowed her revenge against Stark when she next saw him. Steve had to talk her down from the proverbial ledge, his muscles tensing at the sight of red sparks swirling around her body. The enhanced girl had only allowed her power to die down after hours of comforting and cajoling from Steve and the rest of them. Even then, her eyes continued to glow an ominous crimson, sending chills down Steve’s spine. He wanted to tell them the truth about Siberia every time he heard the team cursing Tony’s name, but the words always got stuck in his throat. He felt guilty and responsible for their low opinion of the genius, but he couldn’t bring himself to correct them either. It wasn’t like he could change their minds, so he pushed the memories to the back of his mind, allowing himself to enjoy the time with his friends.

It didn’t take them long to get bored of lying around all day in Wakanda doing nothing. The country was beautiful, but there was only so much of the Wakandan jungle that they could explore without getting tired of seeing the same shrubs. They made their decision one day while they were in the living room that T’Challa provided them with, the news playing a footage of an attack, with no Avenger in sight.

Sam frowned, “Stark may be petty, but I didn’t peg him as the type to ignore when people needed help.”

Clint snorted, tossing the remote control up and down, “What did you expect? He’s probably hiding somewhere in that ugly tower of his.”

Wanda sneered, “Stark only knows how to destroy,” her hands clenched, red sparks flickering around them, “He would not bother to save lives.”

Steve felt vaguely uncomfortable, but chose to ignore it, instead, asking them, “If we go out there, we might get arrested, are you aware of that?”

Scott gave him a small smile, “Well, we’re already fugitives, might as well save lives at the same time right?”

Steve looked around at his team, all of them nodding in determination. He felt a smile tug on his lips, the Avengers weren’t going to be broken so easily.

* * *

 

So it went on.

They continued Avenging, but because of their fugitive status, they had to keep their heads down and even though it made it harder to save people, they still did it because they believed that the Avengers were needed. It was tiring, but at the end of each mission, they congratulated each other on a job well done and went underground. They never stayed at one place, moving around to prevent the authorities from finding them.

Of course, their luck couldn’t last for long – not when the whole world was against them.

It happened right after they’d defeated the latest incursion in Nigeria. They’d been picking up after themselves, ready to run before the local government caught up with them when a black figure dropped from the sky. It took a long few seconds for Steve to realize – with growing horror – that the figure was Iron Man.

By the time he tried to retaliate, it was already too late.

Steve received a repulsor blast to the chest throwing him backwards into a wall. He saw Sam try to help him, only to watch as Tony shot into the air, engaging the Falcon in an aerial battle that was nothing but ruthless. Steve shouted for his team to fall back, leaping to his feet only for someone to knock him back down, his head ringing with the force used. He bucked uselessly, feeling cold, steel manacles clamp down on his wrists as whoever had hit him sat on him. Steve could only watch helplessly as his team was taken down one by one.

He watched as Sam tried to outmaneuver Iron Man, watched with a growing pit in his stomach as Iron Man shot down the Falcon. The suit hovered in midair for several seconds before turning, the exploding arrow missing the armor narrowly. Tony shot a blast towards the archer, who dodged, running away desperately to try and regroup. A shrill scream caught Steve’s attention, and he twisted desperately, unaware of the screams coming out of his mouth. He witnessed Wanda – who had been trying to help Clint – collapse to the ground, her hands gripping the sides of her head tightly, Vision standing over her.

Steve hoped fervently that Scott had gotten away, seeing as the man could shrink down to an ant, but that hope was dashed as the man in question enlarged suddenly and fell to the ground, as if he had been thrown by someone. A woman followed later, her yellow and black suit catching Steve’s eye more than the fact that she too had grown in size.

The cold, impassive face of the black Iron Man suit was the last thing Steve saw before he was knocked out.

* * *

 

“–ap! Cap! _Steve_!”

Steve surged upright, sucking in a huge breath of air. He whipped around, his eyes searching for his friends instinctively. He met Sam’s worried gaze and felt his mouth twist into something that he hoped resembled a smile.

From the looks of his team mates, he didn’t exactly succeed.

He stood up, wincing slightly as he did so, “Where are we?” he asked, taking in the dull grey walls around him.

“I don’t know,” Sam replied quietly, “We all woke up here.”

Steve turned to him, realizing that they were all in different cells – much like the one he broke them out of in the Raft.

As if he could read minds, Clint supplied helpfully, “They probably threw us back into the Raft.”

“Nah, the Raft is currently inhabiting about a couple thousand of marine life so unless you wanna join them, you’re not in the Raft.”

They all whipped around at Tony’s voice, the genius stepping into the area as a door slid shut behind him, seamlessly blending in with the wall. The inventor felt a wave of déjà vu as he was confronted with the faces of his once teammates, stepping once more into their midst while they were arranged around him in a semi-circle.

He waited for the inevitable, and wasn’t disappointed when they started hurling insults at him and cursing everything about him. All the while, he kept his genial smile on and maintained eye contact with Rogers, the American hero the only one who didn’t utter a word.

After several minutes of cussing passed – and wow he was subtly impressed at how long they lasted – he finally spoke up again, “Are you done with your tantrums?”

“Tan –” Clint sputtered angrily, but Tony ignored him, placing his hands behind his back.

“This is what’s going to happen,” he began, only to be cut off by Steve’s angry snort.

“You want us to sign the Accords.” The blond stated, frowning heavily with his patented Eyebrows of Disapproval.

Around him, the other ex-Avengers all hissed, their heated mutterings rising again.

Once upon a time, Tony would’ve cringed and something inside him would’ve withered and died at the look that Captain America was giving him. Now? Now he merely raised an eyebrow and chuckled, “Signed the Accords? You’ve already shown that you don’t want to.”

Steve’s frown faltered, “Then what…?”

“If you would let me finish instead of interrupting.” Tony sniped, smirking coldly at him, “As I was saying, I don’t know how you managed to get your uniform back Captain, but it’ll be confiscated. The same goes for Hawkeye and Falcon. Your weapons and suits will be taken back, and you will be held here –”

“You can’t do that!” Sam shouted.

“Don’t worry,” Clint sneered, “It’s standard SHIELD issue, you don’t have the right to take it away.”

Tony laughed, “As a matter of fact, I can. You see, Falcon’s wings were made by Stark Industries, which means that SI has the ability to retrieve that tech, especially since its being used illegally. If you don’t think that’s enough, the wings were designed by me personally, and you can argue all you like, but I can take your little toys away as fast as I can give them.”

By that point, Clint too was looking uneasy, but Tony didn’t let up.

“And SHIELD? SHIELD hired me as their consultant, and ever since then, all SHIELD standard issue weapon and tech were designed by me and manufactured by SI. Your body armor is an adaptation of the ones that SI provides our military, so yes, they are essentially mine.” He whirled around and faced Steve, whose face was paling further and further, “And your shield, don’t even think about ever taking it back.” Tony’s eyes grew cold and unforgiving, and Steve felt his breath catch in his throat, “That shield was made by my father – it’s under the Stark name and as his heir, I have every right to take it back.”

“You – you can’t take my suit.” Scott stammered, “It’s not yours.”

Tony turned to him, smiling coldly, “No it isn’t, but it belongs to Pym, not you. You stole the suit, and it’s rightful owners are taking it back.”

“And you,” he said softly, looking straight at Wanda, whose eyes were blazing with hate, “If it were up to me, you’ll never get your powers back. You’re better off buried here where you belong.”

“She’s just a child Tony!” Steve snarled, slamming his fist into the glass barrier.

Tony scoffed, “If she’s old enough for you to take her out onto the field, she’s not a child. Unless,” he turned back, “you’re admitting to using a child soldier?”

Steve flinched, jaw dropping in horror. “What – what happened to you Tony? Why are you doing this? To us? Your –”

“If the next words out of your mouth is ‘friends’, I’m going to have to correct you.”

Steve snapped his mouth shut.

Tony stalked up to his cell, “If there’s anything this whole Accords situation has taught me, its that none of you were ever my friends. Because friends would have trusted me to do the right thing, not turn around and do what they want.”

“You were working with _Ross_ ,” Steve spat, “Thaddeus Ross.”

Tony shrugged lazily and smirked, “You guys are really behind on your news, Ross – _that_ Ross – was taken off his post months ago.”

The rogues were all stunned into silence.

“That doesn’t change anything.” Sam insisted, a scowl forming on his face, “You still betrayed us when you said you wouldn’t. You went back on your promise to _me_ , you made me believe that you were going to help Steve but you didn’t.”

Tony stilled, and Steve could have killed Sam for what he said.

And because Tony was a genius – never mind what everybody else thought or said – he put the pieces together far too quickly.

Wanda smirked in her cell at the man’s silence, “Your lies have been revealed Stark, you better not try to be a hero because you’re nothing more than a destroyer.” She hissed.

Steve wanted to tell them all to shut up.

He resisted the urge to step back and press into the corner of his cell when Tony slowly turned to him.

The genius stared at him for a long time, then a smile – unfriendly and cold – snaked its way onto his face, his honey brown eyes sharp and piercing.

“You didn’t tell them.” It wasn’t a question.

Tony barked a laugh, throwing his head back as his laughter shook his whole body, all of them watching warily. “After all this time,” he growled, “and it turns out that _Captain America_ is nothing but a _coward_.”

Steve flinched.

Tony stepped up to his cell, until only a thin sheet of glass separated them. “Why don’t you tell them Steve? About what really happened in Siberia?”

The shorter man’s eyes flashed dangerously, “Or maybe I should tell them for you.”

“Tony no –”

“Maybe I should tell them how I dropped everything to help you even after my best friend was paralyzed, even after I’d been threatened by Ross. Maybe I should tell them how the other Winter Soldiers were _killed_ by Zemo long before we got there.”

“What?” Sam whispered, eyes darting towards Steve’s frantically.

Tony sneered, “Maybe, I should tell them how I had to watch, as the _Winter Soldier_ – James Buchanan Barnes – shot out the tires of my parents’ car. How I had to watch him _bash_ my father’s head in and _choke_ my _mother_ to _death_.”

Tony stepped back, his eyes blazing with anger.

In their respective cells, the other rogues were all stunned, looking questioningly at their leader. Even Wanda’s hateful gaze faltered minutely.

Steve gritted his teeth, “It wasn’t him Tony, and you _know_ that. You _know_ he was brainwashed by HYDRA –”

“Oh I apologize, I forgot that you were a hypocrite as well as a coward.” Tony shot back. He pointed to Wanda, “She thinks I killed her parents because my name was on a missile, and she joined a Nazi organization to get powers so she could kill me. But it’s fine for her right? Because she’s a child? It’s totally fine for her to want to kill the person who ‘murdered’ her parents but when I do the same its suddenly wrong?”

“Bucky didn’t do it Tony!”

The man grinned, “Because it’s Bucky, your _precious_ Bucky. Tell me Mr. Sometimes-my-teammates-don’t-tell-me-things,” watching with vicious satisfaction as Steve flinched from the name, “You were preaching to me about not keeping secrets from the team – I guess as leader you can get away with anything.”

“I didn’t want to open old wounds –” Steve tried.

“Did it ever occur to you Rogers, that if you’d told me the truth about my parents before, Siberia wouldn’t have happened?”

Steve looked down guiltily.

Tony stared at him, “You had balls, I give you that. You used my tech, my resources and you didn’t even bother to tell me I was allowing you to use it to search for the person who murdered my parents. Were you afraid that I’d hunt him down and kill him myself?” When Steve didn’t reply, Tony shrugged, “Never mind, it’s better this way at least. Siberia gave me the eye opener I needed, to realize that all of you were nothing but parasites who fed off of me, who took my home, my money, my power and my tech and still thought yourselves above me.”

“You deserve it!” Wanda shouted, “You deserve every drop of pain and anguish you felt and the only reason you are not feeling more is because my powers are sealed.” She hissed bitterly.

Tony faced her, “For the record, I didn’t fire that missile. I tracked it actually – believe me it’s a pain in the ass to find all those wayward weapons from way back when. But the report finally came in. Stark Industries properties have a one in a hundred thousand chance of malfunctioning because I demand nothing but the best from my company.” He stared at her coldly, the girl shrinking back at the implication, “What destroyed your house was a bomb made by terrorists. What landed in your room wasn’t the actual missile, it was nothing more than a _fake_.”

Wanda screamed in denial, her hands covering her ears, shaking her head desperately.

“And on that note, all of you are to stay here until your trial, where your sentence will be determined.” Tony continued, looking each of them in the eye.

“We didn’t do anything wrong Stark.” Clint spat.

“Of course you did, you broke dozens of laws which I’m sure you’ll hear about in court.”

“We were trying to save people Tony,” Steve admonished, shaking his head disappointedly.

Tony just scoffed, the tone rolling off his back easily, “Try telling that to the families of the people you killed, and we’ll see how that holds up yeah?”

“Tony…” Steve warned.

“ _No_.” the billionaire snarled, “You don’t get to use that tone on me, not anymore. I am _done_ with you. You once told me, ‘big man in a suit of armor, take that away and what am I?’” Tony waved his hand, gesturing to all of them, “ _This_ is who I am. I once told Loki that there was no throne for him to take. I was wrong. I’m the one who has the power to change the whole goddamn world.”

Steve felt his throat run dry at the implication behind those words.

“You were right in saying I wasn’t a hero Rogers,” Tony sneered, “Because if this is what heroes are made of, I sure as hell don’t want to be one.”

With that, the man whirled and stalked out of the cells, leaving the rogue Avengers behind with their thoughts.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a review on your way out! :)


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